School Swimming lessons

[Jacksonsisters]

My DS started school swimming lessons last week, he is already a good swimmer and has a 20 m badge. I was annoyed because the swimming teacher put him in the shallow end and asked if he wanted arm bands, despite have taught him herself and being aware of his level.
Most of the class were the other end with one teacher. Am I right to think school swimming lessons are total shit!
Because even at the deep end the children were waiting in turns to jump in as so many, lucky forus not cold time of year. How can one teacher teach 24 kids??

That's school for you - group/institutional teaching is never going to be as efficient as one-to-one for many skills (though can work very well for others) but it's all the school system can afford.

yabu to expect that a swimming teacher can recall each child out of usual context when they probably teach several lessons a week. Were the other group more advanced perhaps ? The ratio is normally about 1:8 for lessons at KS1, were other adults present ?

How do you know this? Were you there? Are you a qualified smimming teacher?
YABU It's his first lesson and presumably the first lesson for the teacher with this group of children. the first lesson is probably an opportunity for the teacher to assess the children's abilities.

I always thought school swimming lessons were shit, I did some 12/13 years ago, and although i couldn't swim, I was confident floating on my back, two weeks of an hour lesson everyday, I was scared of putting my head underwater and it took me years to get my confidence back. I'm not saying this is always the case.

The governement has a target - every Y child must leave school being able to swim (and for that you can read doggy paddle, float , not actually drown) for 25 metres ... manage that and boxes have been ticked

Mine started last week too, we parctised all week trying to squeeze her head into a freakin cap! They were divided into 2 groups also - laods with a school teacher who could swim well and the other half consiting of complete non swimmers to those that swam with a bit of a non perfect style. They also went into lunch early , bolted it down then whisked off to pool to swim within half an hour!

Children have different colour hats, and DS hat colour shows he is level 5 and can swim lengths, so yes swimming teacher does know level. And he does all four strokes including butterfly and weekly lessons. Children who are in a lower class were in deep end. So I felt they hadnt assessed them very well. Only 8 children in shallow end. I agree cant assess them all immediately. But to ask a child who can clearly swim if they need arm bands is rude.
I would rather the schools concentrate on children who cant swim to be honest. Im happy to pay for weekly lessons.

our swim hat merely highlights dds hat was pennies from home bargains

OOOh just love the swim caps!!! I refused to buy the plastic type ones, i bought the soft material ones by zoggs. Same colour so no one made a fuss, and my child was not scalped each time hat went on/off

i said i wouldn't pay when my able swimming boy got put in bottom set. didn't want to waste my money as he wouldn't learn anything.

oooo is that what we got - it says made of silicone?

Yes Beers I'm wondering also if boring at deep end. Agree is box ticking exercise. Not saying my son is top swimmmer but just want him to be swimming at his abilty. As it was they just walked from one side to other and given swimming aids. Which is fine if learning to swim. I mentioned it to school who said it was swimming pools responisbility and rang pools who said it was schools. So am hoping next week will be better. Thankfully only for term.

i think he had been poorly the assessment day but they already knew how able he was

Skyblue why was your son put in bottom set?

skyblue your experience seems same as ours. I probably should be annoyed and should laugh about it, but really annoyed me.

shouldn't

I've always thought school swimming lessons were a waste of time. In our school, the children spend most of the time travelling to and from the pool (no leisure centre nearby) and they only get one lesson per week for six weeks. Hardly enough time to teach anything worthwhile.

For kids who can swim, it acts as a chance to practise, but it's not nearly sufficient to teach children who can't swim.

My DC had lessons private lessons, as did most of the kids that we know.

I think school swimming lessons depend very much on the teachers available at the pool - DD1 had them last year and her group were taught by the same guy who taught her for her paid lessons (school lessons are free where we are). She came to school a week late (volcano), was assessed separately and put in the top group and taught by a qualified coach who worked on improving stroke and technique - she is now really smooth and can do tumble turns so definitely not a waste of time.

That said the lessons in our local pool are much sought after because of the teaching team, people come from out of area for them and waiting lists for the beginners' groups are horrendous - almost a year. Both my DDs swim like fish and I am looking forward to DD2 starting school lessons next year when she is in YR4

I 'teach' swimming to KS2 children once a week. We take 60 children. It takes 90mins to get there, change, swim, change, get back. They swim in groups of 10 and spend most of their time waiting on the pool side to swim.
I hate it! I have never had a days training in my life.

Enough said!

Was just about to post and realised tryingtobemarypoppins2 had said exactly what I was going to say already.

Waste of time and effort for most kids, especially as in every school I've taught at, the children swim for maybe 1/2 the school year and then hand over their slot to another yeargroup. By the time they next swim, some have forgotten everything they had achieved before.

Oh and don't start me on the stress of getting 60 children changed.

When my DD (y4) did swimming lessons this year, the class was split into groups of five or six, according to ability. The lessons were at the local leisure centre with qualified swim teachers.

My yr4 class go swimming and are taught by a mixture of adults from the school who have been on a swimming course or qualified coaches from the pool. They go for the whole year and generally make excellent progress. It does take an hour and a half to go there and back for a half hour lesson but since there is only one class and 3-4 teachers they get plenty of attention and are swimming for the majority of the time.
The first session of the year is spent assessing the children - they are all asked to get in the shallow end and swim out a bit then are put into groups from that, but the groups are constantly reviewed and children are moved up as soon as they achieve certain skills needed for the next group.
Can you actually speak to the teacher who takes your child swimming and explain? Maybe they would assess him again?